There is no doubt that the teams at the 2022 Presidents Cup have all failed. The fact that the US has 12 best players and the international team has 12 worst players is not necessarily accurate, but you can put something close to that and not too far away.
There is also no doubt that this is an issue that hinders interest in this year’s event. After an extremely good 2019 President’s Cup, it’s not unreasonable to believe that future Presidents Cups will be a lot closer than past ones – and perhaps even more competitive than the Ryder Cups.
With the defections of international players like Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Louis Oosthuizen to LIV Golf, that story has changed quite a bit. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the individual player rankings. If you’re looking at the entire list, you might squint and probably tell yourself what a competitive week it was. However, if you look at the player rankings based on current form and past performance at team events, there’s absolutely no chance.
2022 Presidents Cup team, ranked
1. Justin Thomas (USA): JT gets a narrow nod to Scottie Scheffler for his incredible play in team events (he played 10-2-3 in non-single matches at the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup). ). He knows what is expected of him, and unlike many talented athletes, he definitely wants the ball when the lights come on.
2. Scottie Scheffler (USA): The world No. 1 received the PGA Tour Player of the Year award two weeks ago. Even though he hasn’t won since masters, his tackles are still similar, and his outside play has barely dropped at all. He’s probably ready to shoulder a heavy load at team USA events.
3. Xander Schauffele (USA): No matter how you divide it, Schauffele has been one of the top three players at the event for the past six months. He’s a threat from tee to green, and he has a career 6-3-0 record at US team events, including a 4-0-0 difference. in four matches with Patrick Cantlay (with whom he will be paired regularly this week).
4. Sungjae Im (international): This can be tough for Im, but I’m trying to find some hope for Trevor Immelman’s team, and Im played great golf. He’s second in the field for tackles in his last 20 rounds and narrowly won the Tour title ahead of Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Neither team scored more than the 3.5 points he posted in 2019 at Royal Melbourne.
5. Tony Finau (USA): One of last year’s Ryder Cup breakout stars has also been one of the best players in the world for the past six months. Finau is behind only Scheffler and Schauffele in tackles over the past six months.
6. Patrick Cantlay (USA): He’s played well on this course, played well in games at team events and has been generally great over the past two months. There’s a lot to like. Cantlay and Finau were the only players to average at least 0.3 strokes per round in all four categories (steer, approach, around green and put).
7. Max Homa (USA): He is on his fifth win last week in Napa, California, becoming his first team event where he will thrive. That helps him to have won at Quail Hollow before and was one of the top six players at the event in his last 20 rounds.
8. Cameron Young (USA): He’s been the longest-running player of anyone at the event for the past 12 months, and only Taylor Pendrith is closest. According to Data Golf, Young has the largest course-appropriate impact of the 24 golfers who will tee off this week. If he does pair up with Tony Finau, it will be an absolute stroke of luck.
9. Jordan Spieth (USA): He’s shown real glimpses of his old iron self, but the putter hasn’t been a miracle (at least). I’m confident he’ll play for sure, but I’m not going to scream it from the rooftops like I’ve done at previous team events because last season was statistically the worst season of my career. His PGA Tour.
10. Sam Burns (USA): Burns cooled down a bit at the end of last season and has ceased to be an outstanding dribbling striker over the past few months. However, he seems perfectly built to play the game at Quail Hollow (long iron, great, well placed) and will thrive on his team alongside Scheffler, Billy Horschel and Kevin Kisner.
11. Hideki Matsuyama (international): The 2021 Masters champion will compete in his fifth Presidential Cup. He has the second-best Quail Hollow hit of anyone at the event, behind only Thomas and just ahead of Spieth and Billy Horschel.
12. Adam Scott (international): Finished last season with the top two players in his last four games. His overall run in the Presidents Cup, however, is 16-22-6, which isn’t great given the majority of that comes in the middle of the peak of his career. He also went on to claim that he would dress most like anyone’s dad at the event.
13. Collin Morikawa (USA): How scary is it for the US to have a big win twice with a low like this? The internationals don’t have a major multi-time winner on their roster, and the US can recommend someone who did last year as their 10th player of the year.
14. Corey Conners (international): What was the first Conners President’s Cup like?! He is an excellent ball-handling striker (fifth on the pitch in the last 20 games), but a short game can keep him out of many games and can especially be a problem in the short run. alternate shot.
15. Tom Kim (international): Possibly the biggest difference between anyone’s floor and ceiling in the field. Kim is a brilliant iron player (best on the field in his last 20 rounds), and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win two or three games against players who have outperformed him. at the tee (most of them).
16. Billy Horschel (USA): It’s been a year of ups and downs for Horschel, who just won the Memorial but also failed to finish in the top 20 of the PGA Tour later via the Tour Championship. Statistically speaking, Quail Hollow isn’t the best match for him, but I also wouldn’t want to face him in a match any time soon.
17. Cameron Davis (international): Consider me attractive here. He’s one of the four or five longest-playing players on the field and one of the few internationals whose strength exceeds that of most US players. He also ended this most recent PGA Tour season with 5 top 20s in his last 6 starts. He will likely prove to be a good captain pick for Immelman.
18. Taylor Pendrith (international): Along with Davis, he was clearly picked for his length, but he also hit his club pretty well and had six top 15s in his last seven PGA Tour starts last season (T67 at the Championships) enemy Fortinet last week).
19. Si Woo Kim (international): His hit has been terrifyingly bad lately, but you know, the talent there can hit anyone the US can throw at him. It’s always a mystery at events like this, but who can forget him full of “shhh” at the 2017 Presidents Cup with his team having had two touchdowns on Sunday.
20. Mito Pereira (international): The PGA Championship winner has almost had a strong season, but he hasn’t made a single top 40 spot in the last six tournaments and hasn’t brought much batting momentum to Quail Hollow.
21. Kevin Kisner (USA): He’s been the worst dribbler on the pitch for the past 12 months, and much of that is because he’s the shortest player on the pitch with a decent margin (although Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Tom Kim are pretty close together). ). In fact, Kisner can clean in-game like he does at the WGC event, but on paper, he’s not a great fit for this golf course.
22. KH Lee (international): He broke into the top 10 after winning AT&T Byron Nelson earlier this year.
23. Sebastian Munoz (international): He didn’t have a top 10 after his T3 at AT&T Byron Nelson earlier this year.
24. Christiaan Bezuidenhout (international): He is one of only two golfers to have hit a negative hit in his last 20 rounds (Kisner is the other). That won’t go well at Quail Hollow.
